Silver halide color photosensitive material (often referred to as "color photosensitive material"), after exposure, is typically processed through a series of steps including color development, desilvering, water washing, and stabilization. It is a common practice to use a color developer for color development, a bleaching, bleach-fixing or fixing solution for desilvering, city water or ion-exchanged water for washing, and a stabilizing solution for stabilization. The respective solutions are typically adjusted to a temperature of 30.degree. to 40.degree. C. while the color photosensitive material is dipped in the solutions for respective processing purposes.
Commonly used types of color photosensitive material include picture-taking color photosensitive material (often referred to as "negative film") and color printing photosensitive material (often referred to as "color paper"). To develop these different types of color photosensitive material in a laboratory, separate automatic developing machines are used for the respective materials. Installation of two automatic processors for negative film and color paper inconveniently occupies a substantial space in small area photo laboratories and print corners.
One approach to space saving is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Kokai (JP-A) Nos. 129747/1985 and 34759/1986 relating to "an automatic developing machine comprising in a machine housing, separate processing tanks for separately processing different types of photosensitive material, and processing tanks each for commonly processing the different types of photosensitive material, the tanks being joined together in an array."
JP-A No. 169162/1987 discloses "a method for processing silver halide color photographic photosensitive material using an automatic developing machine comprising at least a color developing tank, a processing tank including a bleaching tank, and a stabilizing tank substituting for water washing, said method comprising processing two types of silver halide color photographic photosensitive material having different iodine contents in processing tanks having substantially the same bleaching capacity, characterized by processing a photosensitive material having an iodine content of up to 0.3 mol % and a bromine content of up to 80 mol % among the two types of photosensitive material in a processing tank having a bleaching capacity for it for a time of up to 1 minute."
JP-A No. 52549/1987 discloses "a color photographic photosensitive material processing apparatus comprising at least two color developing tanks for processing different types of color photographic photosensitive material, a tank having a bleaching function, and a stabilizer tank, said apparatus being devoid of a washing tank for washing the photosensitive material with water flow."
The developing machines disclosed in JP-A Nos. 129747/1985 and 134759/1986 are designed mainly for processing of color negative film and color paper. Developing tanks are separately provided as processing tanks for the respective purposes, whereas a bleach-fixing tank, a stabilizing tank or the like is provided as a common processing tank serving for both the purposes. This design is effective in reducing the installation space. Since processing tanks for bleach-fixation, stabilization and the like subsequent to development are common, no satisfactory photographic properties are accomplished unless the composition of respective processing solutions such as a bleach-fixing solution and a stabilizer is carefully chosen. In fact, JP-A No. 134759/1986 discloses in Experiments 1 and 2 that stains and insufficient desilvering occur with some bleaching agents used, and that surface soiling occurs and silver sulfide forms with some stabilizer compositions. Also, surface soiling occurs and silver sulfide forms with most stabilizers at a processing temperature because the processing temperature is common to the different types of photosensitive material. These references pay no attention to the recycle of used processing solutions including color developing, bleach-fixing, and stabilizing solutions or the reduction of replenishing amounts therefor.
The method of JP-A No. 169162/1987 is intended for processing two types of silver halide color photographic photosensitive material having different iodine contents in a common bleach-fixing tank. This method is effective in reducing the installation space, but imposes complexity in that the halogen composition of color photosensitive material is limited and the processing time must be accurately controlled in order to accomplish satisfactory photographic properties. This reference pays no attention to the recycle of used processing solutions or the reduction of replenishing amounts therefor.
The apparatus disclosed in JP-A No. 52549/1987 is designed mainly for processing of color negative film and color paper. An automatic processor for color negative film and another automatic processor for color paper are disposed side by side such that an overflow from a developing tank of the other processor for color paper is transferred to a developing tank of the processor for color negative film as a replenisher. This design is not only effective in reducing the installation space, but also achieves some improvements in the replenishing amount reduction and the recycle of a used solution.
However, JP-A No. 52549/1987 refers to only a color developer in connection with the replenishment saving and solution reuse, but not to other processing solutions such as a bleach-fixing solution. Regarding the stabilizer, it discloses to direct an overflow of the stabilizer from a late stage tank to a former stage tank within the same color negative film processing section. For the color developer, the travel direction of an overflow of the color developer is limited to the direction of flow from the color paper developing tank to the color negative film developing tank. This is still insufficient in replenishment saving and solution reuse. The amount of a replenisher required for a color negative film developer is generally large as compared with the amount of a replenisher for a color paper developer. Thus, the limited direction of overflow from the color paper developing tank to the color negative film developing tank indicates that the amount of a replenisher for the color paper developer should be unnecessarily increased in order to provide an optimum amount of replenishment to the color negative film developing tank.
If the direction of overflow were reversed for the purposes of used solution recycle and replenishment reduction, no satisfactory photographic properties would be available for the color paper for the following reason. Most often, the silver halide constituting the color negative film is silver iodobromide and the silver halide constituting the color paper is silver chlorobromide. Therefore, the overflow from the negative film developing tank contains the compound which is dissolved away from the color negative film and will deleteriously affect the processing of the color paper.